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May 2006

Walden Media Entering ’New Phase’: "Walden and partner Walt Disney Co. targeted a general audience but also spent some time and money courting church groups and religious organizations. Many believe Lewis’ Narnia series includes Christian allusions."

      Together with the constant bombardment of pagan or Wiccan allusions, those supposed "Christian allusions" distort rather than demonstrate Biblical truth. See How mysticism is changing the Church

CS Lewis Conference: "...Aslan was deliberately played down slightly because it gave him more power and pathos than if he had come across as a very strong, omnipotent character.... Another person asked why the children argued more in the film than in the book.... The consensus was that this... contemporised the children for modern audiences.... Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair may be filmed very close to one another in a 'Caspian' trilogy of sorts." See Trouble in Narnia: The Occult Side of C.S. Lewis

February 2006

The Chronicles of Narnia Course: "Discover great spiritual truths as you explore C. S. Lewis's magical world. Click on the order button below to download all seven studies in this Chronicles of Narnia Bible Study Course... You'll receive a Bible-based guide for personal use or group discussion after having read the book series.... Great scriptural truths worm their way into our lives through the power of these creative stories."  The popularity of C. S. Lewis books as tools for understanding the Bible makes it all the more important to look closely at his beliefs and values. We will review more of his books and hope to provide information needed to make wise decisions based on God's Word. See Narnia - Part 3

January 2006

The Chronicles of Narnia Course: "Discover great spiritual truths as you explore C. S. Lewis's magical world. Click on the order button below to download all seven studies in this Chronicles of Narnia Bible Study Course. [What kind of Bible study is this!]... You'll receive a Bible-based guide for personal use or group discussion after having read the book series.... Great scriptural truths worm their way into our lives through the power of these creative stories."  The popularity of C. S. Lewis books as tools for understanding the Bible makes it all the more important to look closely at his beliefs and values. We will review more of his books and hope to provide information needed to make wise decisions based on God's Word. See Narnia - Part 3

 

C. S. Lewis—Who He Was & What He Wrote: "...unlike the Christian who seeks proof of what is true in the Word of God, Mr. Lewis proves everything through his own logical arguments and examples. Like some other apologists, he treats Christianity as a belief system, as opposed to other belief systems such as atheism or Buddhism....

     "Mere Christianity continually instructs us that our thinking processes about our behavior are either becoming good or becoming evil, and that a creature with good thinking processes will go to heaven, and one with evil thinking processes will go to hell. It is stunningly logical." See Narnia - Part 1

 

Lewis as Mystic: Dom Bede Griffiths observed "that 'there is no doubt that he [C. S. Lewis] had a profound kind of mystical intuition,' the latter commenting that The Pilgrim's Regress scales 'mystical heights.' And several Lewis critics have come to similar conclusions... Leanne Payne goes so far as to claim that Lewis was 'an outstanding Christian mystic.'...

       "Second, Lewis had theological uncertainties about the nature of mystical experiences arising from 'the similarity between Christian and non Christian mysticism' (as he wrote in a letter to Griffiths).... Often... he writes so that his readers may taste the fruit of his mystical insights without consciously 'knowing' it...

      "...his interest in 'the wordless and thoughtless knowledge of the mystic'... pre-dated his Christian conversion by several years.... Downing...has read carefully in the mystical texts from which Lewis quotes most frequently... and the parallels he draws between [occult philosopher] Jacob Boehme's The Signature of All Things and Lewis' own work are revealing." See Warnings - How mysticism & the occult are changing the Church

 

Journey to Narnia: "Aslan’s words, in a very real sense, are the essence of Lewis’ soul. The story he is telling carries a deeper, eternal message — one we all long to hear.... The signs he describes point to the ultimate truth: the gospel of Jesus Christ. ... 'Supposing,' Lewis asks himself, reflecting on the nature of God, the sufferings of Christ and other fundamental Christian truths, 'that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency.” See Narnia - Part 1

December 2005

Birthing Narnia: "C.S. Lewis... went to Oxford as a skeptic, seeing the gospel as just another myth bringing comfort to the weak minded.... By the time he was 32, however, Lewis had a very different view.... What made the change? In a word, fantasy....

     "Lewis would credit ... George MacDonald with having influenced virtually every word he ever wrote.... It began with Phantastes, a dreamlike tale in which a boy wishes to visit fairy-country. He awakes the next morning in an enchanted wood where he encounters profound happiness mixed with perilous adventure — including death and rebirth of sorts.... And so, thanks to the imagination of George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis found his way home....

    "In May of 1955, the mother of a 9-year-old boy named Laurence wrote to C.S. Lewis explaining that Laurence was concerned that he loved Aslan more than Jesus. To her delighted surprise, she received a reply 10 days later.... 'Laurence can't really love Aslan more than Jesus, even if he feels that's what he is doing. For the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things Jesus really did and said. So that when Laurence thinks he is loving Aslan, he is really loving Jesus."

Notice how many of these Narnia reviewers illustrate the dialectic synthesis of opposites such as reason & imagination, fantasy & truth, good & evil:

Why There Are Seven Chronicles of Narnia: "In February, Michael Ward was reading Lewis' poem, ' The Planets,' published in 1935. A former president of the Oxford University C.S. Lewis Society, Ward.... was reading the section of 'The Planets' that deals with Jove, or Jupiter, when he was struck by its resonance with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The poem speaks of 'winter passed / And guilt forgiven'...

     "By the medieval reckoning, there were seven 'planets'.... Was it possible, Ward wondered, that each of the seven Narnia books was written under the sign of a different planet? Looking closely at the Narnia Chronicles side-by-side with Lewis' 1935 poem, and other of his writings that touch on the planets, especially his posthumously published book, The Discarded Image, a retrieval of the medieval worldview, Ward found that indeed there is such a correspondence: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe corresponds to Jupiter, Prince Caspian to Mars, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to the Sun, The Silver Chair to the Moon, The Horse and His Boy to Mercury, The Magician's Nephew to Venus, and The Last Battle to Saturn.

     "Each planet... represents a certain set of linked emotions and images, a temper, a disposition, along the spectrum. And these are reflected, Ward found, in the Narnia books.... Astrology! But what Ward has discovered is entirely consistent with Lewis' Christian humanism."

 

Aslan Is On the Move by Albert Mohler: "Like many admirers of Lewis' work, I harbored deep suspicions that the movie would not be faithful to the book.... Those fears were unfounded....

     "Given the secularization of the culture and the low level of biblical knowledge among so many in the population, some will miss the allusions entirely. As observers in Great Britain have noted, a nation in which only 28 percent of adults indicate any knowledge of the origin of Easter as a holiday is unlikely to include many who will spot the Christian allusions....

     "Nevertheless, Lewis was often not a careful theologian. He was an inclusivist on the question of salvation, believing that at least some who did not consciously believe in Christ would be saved. He rejected the inerrancy of Scripture and was never adequately specific about his understanding of the atonement." See Narnia - Part 3

 

The magic never ends: "Throughout his life, Lewis remained spiritually inquisitive. And he used both his fiction and non-fiction writing to develop a defense of the faith in which he came to believe.... In fact, many who read Lewis visit his worlds without ever knowing that he writes from a Christian perspective. '... You have to talk about Lewis in terms of the different aims he had... the idea of making Christianity believable without actually naming it.... And, of course, the idea of putting together a fantasy, making a world that works....

     "...C.S. Lewis was able to use his fictional writing to convey moral and ecological values that complemented the spiritual and attracted a global following. 'One of the things he had to offer was multiculturalism...." See Establishing a Global Spirituality

 

C.S. Lewis biographer sees boom in interest in writer's works: "A lot of people would look at 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' and say, 'Oh, look, this is an allegory for the story of Christ.' Lewis himself said no, it's not an allegory, because there's no 1-to-1 ratio. 'This' is not really 'this,' 'that' is not exactly 'that,' Duncan said. 'But he coined the phrase 'supposal,' and his version of that term, the way he defines it, is that 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' is supposal: Suppose there was another land called Narnia, and suppose there was a character in Narnia named Aslan who had the characteristics of Christ, and suppose there were a story (with) elements in it that were similar to the story of Christ. That's how he gets away with the allegory."

      "Gresham has worked with Lewis' estate since 1973, and assisted with the upcoming movie. Taking a cue from Lewis' own spirituality, Gresham became a minister; he and his wife operate a nondenominational Christian house of ministry that specializes in counseling and seminar hosting."

 

Disney's 'Narnia': Christ Need Not Apply: "Reportedly, elementary schoolchildren and teenagers in Bible study groups are booking theaters to see the PG-rated movie.... 'We believe that God will speak the gospel of Jesus Christ through this film,' said Lon Allison, director of Illinois' Billy Graham Center. ...

     "'Disney is loathing the idea that the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or a preacher like Jerry Falwell will actively promote the film. They want the Christian community's money, but not their viewpoint,' the source said. ...

     "USA Today asked: 'Is the world created by C.S. Lewis a rip-roaring piece of fantasy – or a fairy tale suffused with Christian imagery? 'The answer is both...."

Lewis Revisited: "...what really makes him so compelling is his ability to blend reason and imagination in his works. As he wrote, 'For me, reason is the natural organ of truth, and imagination is the organ of understanding.' ...  So Christians and non-Christians alike can appreciate both Lewis’s endlessly creative imagination, and the way he grounded even his works of fantasy in absolute truth. This is why you do not have to be a Christian to enjoy The Chronicles of Narnia." Narnia - Part 1

Lions, Witches, and Wardrobes: "Nearly all of the critics singled out Tilda Swinton’s performance as the White Witch. The BBC called her performance a 'pristine picture of evil.' The Guardian called it 'her finest hour,' adding that 'her statuesque hauteur and that otherworldly presence are sublimely right here.'”

The Pre-Baptism of the Imagination: "What fellowship has Buffy with Aslan? Not much, you would think. Many Christian supporters of the cult TV series have worked hard to make the case that the show really does honor religious and moral virtues. And some of their arguments have merit: for instance, the argument that the show promotes loyalty and sacrifice.... In fact, there are many people who fully embrace the depraved popular culture around us, and yet still enjoy reading Lewis....

     "It is possible to extract from the Narnia stories a system of theology very like the Christian.... But the author almost certainly did not want his readers to notice the resemblance of the Narnian theology to the Christian story. ... 'I am aiming at a sort of pre-baptism of the child’s imagination.'”

 

Narnia' a Classic Tale for the Ages: "'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'... is worthy of support from anyone, whether conservative or liberal, who believes in classic, humanistic storytelling. ... Aslan, it has been debated, is intended by... C.S. Lewis to be a symbol for Christ... but of course the lion is also a royal and divine symbol throughout world religion; there are numerous lion-like divine figures in ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Hindu and Buddhist religious symbolism....

     "The White Witch herself seems to be a throwback to various witches and goddesses of Celtic and Greek mythology. Her hair is dressed in the snake-like coils of a Medusa.... Is it perhaps that like a shamaness, the White Witch dons the lion's garb in order to assume his magical powers, or to signify some deeper connection with the figure of Aslan - a connection that surmounts the duality of good and evil? Why would the White Witch be garbed in leonine costume at the end, except perhaps as a sign that she and Aslan are two halves of one whole, and that they are playing out in ritual fashion an eternal cosmic struggle, where good and evil, light and dark, summer and winter alternate in ascendancy throughout the round of time?"

 

A 'Narnia' C.S. Lewis might love: "In January of 1939... [Lewis] managed to catch the then relatively new movie, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.' A few days later, he wrote to a friend about it. 'Leaving out the tiresome question of whether it is suitable for children (which I don't know and I don't care) I thought it almost inconceivably good and bad.'... Bad? Well, 'the worst thing of all was the vulgarity of the winking dove at the beginning....

      "...a woman named Jane Douglass proposed a cartoon version of 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' for British TV. Lewis was a bit skeptical. Thinking of the great lion Aslan, who is at the center of all the Narnian tales, he replied, 'I am sure you understand that Aslan is a divine figure, and anything remotely approaching the comic would be to me simple blasphemy." See Narnia - Part 2

 

Narnia beckons - Did you know? "Lewis was a member of the Coalbiters, an Oxford club that read aloud Icelandic sagas and myths in the original language. The club was founded by J.R.R. Tolkien. Lewis was an atheist from his youth and did not confess Christ until his early thirties. ...

     "Lewis’s marriage at nearly 60 years of age to a divorced former Communist of Jewish heritage upset many of his friends. The Lewis brothers’ tombstone reads, - 'Men must endure their going hence,' the Shakespeare quotation on their father’s calendar the day their mother died." See Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: Truth, Myth or 'Discovered Reality'?

 

Joy Davidman Biography: "Perhaps Whitman's greatest influences on Davidman are the philosophical unification of different life forms and the role of the reader. Both poets use some form of pantheism, and by making the reader a character in their texts, they enable her (him) to have an individual learning experience while accompanying the speaker on a journey. This technique is crucial for Davidman because she advocates a classless society in which the more affluent middle class helps the disadvantaged. ...

     "Davidman's unusual metaphors and similes echo the English Metaphysical poets. For example, in 'Night Piece' Davidman portrays an overbearing lover by using an architectural metaphor that compares a female lover to a fortress and by reworking the simile of a geometer's compass and marriage in John Donne's 'A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.'....

     "Her poems melding art and political activism underscore that art is instrumental in shaping cultural mores and creating social change....

      "In addition to writing for the communist New Masses, she was a screen writer for M-G-M and published her first novel, Anya (1940), which focuses on female self-determination.

      "In 1942 Davidman married William Gresham by whom she had two sons, David and Douglas.... During her troubled marriage, Davidman read the apologetics of C. S. Lewis, and these works influenced her conversion to Christianity. Her autobiographical essay, "The Longest Way Around," details her turning from communism to religion....

       "Davidman and Lewis were married in a civil ceremony on April 23, 1956 and united in a religious ceremony the following year. She died of cancer on July 13, 1960.....

       "...her joining the Communist Party in 1938, the same year that her first book of poetry, Letter to a Comrade, was published. Although the volume's title is clearly Marxist, prospective readers err if they dismiss the 45 poems as propaganda thinly disguised as poetry."

 

The C.S. Lewis for Our Time? "His official title is 'The Right Reverend Father in God Nicholas Thomas Wright, by Divine Providence Lord Bishop of Durham.' Only the Archbishop of York, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of London outrank him. He sits in the United Kingdom’s House of Lords. He is the one responsible for escorting the sovereign at coronation....

     "Wright is generally associated with two theological schools of thought: the so-called 'Third Quest,' because of his insistence on approaching Jesus through the perspective of Jesus’ first-century Jewishness.... But in the end, Wright’s evangelical theology, as unique as it is grounded in Scripture, defies categorization."

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